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In addition to our ability to throw shit, humans also have some of the best endurance that mammals have to offer. An example of this is the Human V Horse race in Wales. The race is a 22-mile / 35-kilometer marathon that takes place in mountainous terrain. Normally, a horse would beat a human in a race without a problem. But in a marathon, humans actually stand a chance with an occasional victor in this specific annual race. All due to our exceptional endurance.
Put the projectiles and endurance together, and we make for a terrifying hunter. Imagine you’re some other animal out in the wild. Maybe you’re really fast or really strong. But if a determined human really wants to try and kill you, there’s no out-running it. It’ll catch up eventually. And if you choose to fight the human, they’ll get the first blow.
But if a determined human really wants to try and kill you, there’s no out-running it. It’ll catch up eventually.
We are the metaphorical snail that relentlessly pursues to kill.
A lot of horror stories rely on humans being persistence hunted in some way
See: every slasher movie ever.
Human V Horse race in Wales
When it’s hot out, the human wins. When it’s cold/cool, humans can’t stand a chance against the horses. Similarly, wolves and dogs can easily outrun humans in the cold, but lose to humans when it’s hot.
That’s because the biggest comparative advantage that humans have is actually thermal management while running, not the act of running itself.
Humans sweat. This means we can actually perform intense exercise even in heat, without overheating as easily as most other animals. Most quadruped mammals pant to cool, and have their breaths tied to their steps while running, so they can’t cool themselves efficiently while on the move. Persistence hunting doesn’t tire out prey, but actually overheats the prey to where they can’t run any further.
Throw in the fact that we can throw, handle weapons while running, climb shit, talk, invent things, etc., and we really have been a deadly species for long before industrialization.
Let’s also add on that humans used a tactic called “persistence hunting”, in which you follow after some animal at a brisk pace startling it every time it tries to rest. With nothing more than sweat glands, pointy sticks and ridiculous endurance, we marathon jogged some species to extinction!
That’s what made dogs perfect as pets.
Our ancestors noticed these animals that would follow us around in packs. They could generally keep up with us, form bonds easily, were pretty good at killing, and mostly ate the parts of the animals we didn’t.
We just chose the ones who were coolest with us and just bred the ones who loved us the most.
There are other animals that fit this description, but dogs are the only ones that also happen to reproduce fast enough that you could feasibly notice the improvement in behavior over generations.
In soviet russia, an experiment was made to see if the domestication of dogs could be replicated on foxes, with mild success. Basically all foxes in western Europe today are in some way crossbred from the tamer foxes produced by this experiment, explaining why foxes aren’t completely terrified of humans.
and don’t forget that humans have excellent and precise communication skills, too. At least in theory. One human might not be able to kill the wild animal, but a group can.
Also, we can and do eat some mild poisons because they’re tasty somehow.
I have a love of chocolate, but smaller animals can’t eat as much without severe metabolic issues that might kill them.
And capsaicin is straight-up an anti-mammal deterrent. Birds might be able to eat it with no reaction at all. Meanwhile humans just deal with their temperature receptors being freaking hacked for seemingly no other reason than fun.
The poison thing is relative, there are animals that can eat things toxic to us and vice versa.
And we eat some because we enjoy altered mental states.
I must be a lesser ape then because I can’t aim for shit
You have the ability to. Doesn’t mean you have the skill
I tried so so hard to learn and though throughout my childhood and teens and I can’t for the life of me figure it out. Might be an autism thing?
Could have been a coaching issue or mechanical issue. My son is only 9 but loves baseball and I somehow managed to instill some bad habits in his throwing technique early on so he struggles with consistency at this point. He can throw hard and accurately, but when he forgets to focus on the mechanics we’re working on fixing, he loses all accuracy.
Consistency and mechanics are key for sustained accuracy, and while I don’t know your background, if you never had a coach help you with your form, it’s not surprising that you struggle with accuracy.
That makes sense actually! Might be some combination. I was never specifically instructed how exactly to throw, but all the other kids didn’t seem to struggle like I did. Lack of coordination is a general problem for me. But now I’m intrigued to find out if I could learn with proper instruction
Definitely! It’s never too late to learn a new skill, especially with YouTube and the Internet available. I’d try looking up some videos specific to the type of throwing you want to learn, especially if there are some videos focused on fundamentals or teaching kids
TIL I could be out-pitched by most other apes because I’m so weak. I am a shame of a human.
TIL, I might not be human.
Transcription:
vriskalazuli
to add to this “humans are weird” thing did you know that humans are the only species on earth with the ability to throw things with any significant degree of accuracy and force (apes can throw with about the force of a human ten year old, but cant lock their wrists well enough for accuracy)
and we just never really think about it bc its so easy and simple to us that pretty much all of our sports are based around the concept of throwing things accurately
so
what if the concept of projectile weapons takes most species FOREVER to get the hang of, or even come up with in the first place. a human goes onto a ship and throws some trash into the nearest reclaimer, shouts “kobe!” and all the other aliens on board absolutely LOSE THEIR MINDS145,819 notes
This sounds fake
Nope, we are really fucking good at throwing. Basically we created a feadback loop due to how throwing with more accuracy and force was better for hunting and defense that it increased survival ratings. This in turn meant those who threw better got to breed while those who didnt died.
I wonder if the inherent ability to do the physics required to do an accurate throw fed into humanity’s ability to do maths?
Probably not. In calculus class, our teacher showed us a video showing a dog finding the quickest path to catch a ball using the trajectory of the ball to predict where the ball would land and its own knowledge of its swimming versus running speeds to predict the best place at which to enter the water the ball would land in. The human had thrown the projectile into a river, and the dog started running as soon as the human released the ball. The video was taken from above, and it had been edited to show the audience the calculus required to find the optimal path. The dog followed this path exactly.
But dogs aren’t good at math. I don’t know how you would get a dog to attempt an algebra problem, but they probably couldn’t do it. The calculation required to throw a ball accurately or decide when to cross into the river is probably more instinctual.
You’re begging the question – dogs are good at math! Even if they can’t read or write differential equations, they’re solving the problem posed to them!
Good problem-solvers, but not good at math bc they can’t show their work or write a proof or explain how they got to the result beyond “I don’t know, it just feels right”.
Isn’t math defined as the logical steps to get from axioms to theorems, followed by the application of theorems to specific problems? Dogs don’t do that, they just guess (and often guess correctly).
the archerfish can accurately spit jets of water to hunt inscects … I’m sure there are much more examples of other species accurately throwing things around. we’re not that special …
This is a pretty big stretch. I wouldn’t say spitting and throwing are comparable.
I’m interested in hearing about the other examples of species accurately throwing things though.
